A delay in construction of the upper intake for the Issaquah salmon hatchery will not jeopardize Salmon Days, which will be held the first weekend of October as usual.

Jane Kuechle, executive director of Friends of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery, said water is being diverted around the construction area into a large culvert. This limits the amount of water in the hatchery, but she said the fish are already coming back, and can get as far as the hatchery without any problems.

Hatchery workers will have to gather up some of the fish, which will then be hauled by a water truck to the upper part of the creek, beyond the hatchery.

Brodie Antipa, operations manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Region No. 4 hatcheries, said it’s a tricky project.

“Anytime you’re diverting water, it’s complicated,” Antipa said.

He said bank restoration takes time, but echoed Kuechle, assuring that the delay in the project will not hamper Salmon Days. He said the project should be completed in late October.

A private landowner whose property has Issaquah Creek running through it has given Fish and Wildlife permission to have the fish trucked to his property.

The project, which includes replacing the dam upstream of the hatchery, is necessary because the dam is old, dating back to 1937. Fish often could not make it past the dam. As the bottom of the dam began to erode, a cement shelf was built, but when the water is low in the fall, many fish would just flop on the slab and die before they could spawn.

It is being replaced with a natural fish ladder made of a series of rock weirs that are being installed in the creek. The $4 million project, approved by the Legislature this year, will make it easier for fish to make it further upstream to spawn.